The Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) is a joint venture between BP and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), focused on oil and gas exploration and production in Egypt. Its portfolio includes eight operating concessions in the Gulf of Suez, with daily production of over 78,000 barrels of oil per day.

As part of its work on reservoirs such as Asal, Kareem, and Nubia in the Gulf of Suez, GUPCO wanted to optimize its well perforation interval planning. To achieve this, the company's existing workflows needed to be updated to improve its pore-throat radius R35 predictions and capillary pressure estimations.

After meeting with Schlumberger experts it soon became clear that a customized solution, based on the Techlog wellbore software platform and using the Python application workflow interface (AWI), would overcome GUPCO's challenges.

Python workflow extension

Python open-source scripting capabilities are incorporated within the Techlog platform to enable a variety of programming activities, from simple calculations to complex interface and database implementations. The Python editor within the Techlog platform allows access to all data objects, mathematical and statistical routines, petrophysical calculations, and plot objects.

The Schlumberger team worked with GUPCO to optimize key areas of its wellbore analysis workflow using the Python editor. A new, more streamlined process was created to calculate permeability and pore-throat radius R35. A customized script was produced to compute all relevant input parameters in seconds using the Gardner method, as well as the Young’s and Shear moduli, and the capillary pressure and hydrocarbon column height against different reservoir properties.

The Python editor provides a range of features, including the use of scripts to access previously compiled code from languages such as C++ and Fortran. A range of additional tools and library functions is also available via the Python community.